Simard: And yeah I think, you know, researchers mature, they get older, they start to understand these other things better. But when young researchers are making their way into the field, and they're getting their creds based on this sort of very cut-and-dried science, it's kind of a self-fulfilling system. Right? They publish reductionist tracts and feel like they're in charge of the subjects they're studying, you know, it reinforces it. And then later in life, they go, oh, well, there's more to this picture than I realize. But by then, the damage has been done.
Hawkins: Do you have a favorite tree? Probably going to say Douglas fir, right?
Simard: I love the fir because I studied it to death, but there's so many great trees. I mean birches -- they're beautiful. I love deciduous trees. I love aspens, I love the high elevations of alpine firs because I hike in them and they form clusters and, you know, there's the big trees in the middle and then the little ones going out. It's hard to say I have a favorite. I know what least favorite tree is: the white pine.
Hawkins: There's a film called The Sea of Trees. Japanese. Aokigahara Forest, where people, thousands of people over the decades have gone to commit suicide. They find a tree and either hang themselves or take a drug and they end their lives; hundreds and hundreds of people doing that. So you go to this forest, you not only see trees everywhere, but you see people, you know, dead and everywhere and in various phases of decomposition.
Simard: Here's a story. I was in Seattle where Chief Seattle lived, and I was doing this little talk thing with his great great grandson, Ken Workman. And we were in a log house in the forest for his family group. Grew up in the Skokomish. I think it's the Snohomish tribe. And the longhouse is made of Cedars Cedar Planks. And he told the story of how when the people died, his grandparents, his the ancestors died. They buried them up in the trees, up in the crowns of the trees. And then, you know, their bodies would decay and then seep into the roots. And then they end up inside the trees. But humans, he said, you know, listen to these walls. These are my grandparents listening to what we're saying. And it just made me realize. So I'm not surprised that they do that. I mean, it gives them eternal life in a way to live on in the trees and the trees reproduce and they're right there in the tree. Well, why not? Although I'm not ready to do that at any time soon.
Hawkins: It's kind of unrelated. But do you have any thoughts on the California fires? Are they too the result of mismanagement or better tree management?
Simard: Combination of. But climate change is the killer, right? Like, so to get a fire, you need three things. You need fuel. And so, of course, we've been suppressing fire. So the fuels have been building up. And also we you know, we log the old trees, which are really good at bringing water up from the ground and redistributing and making the forest moist. And also they're just they've got thicker bark. They're more resistant to fire. And that's why they've been around for a long time as they've lived through lots of different a lot of the different fires. And they've got that encoded in their genes. And that's important for migrating as climate does change. So mismanagement definitely plays a role. But we also have climate change. So we're getting higher and higher temperatures and then you're going to have lightning and we're getting more lightning because the atmosphere is more volatile because we have more heat in the atmosphere. So we've created this. You know, it's all our fault. We've created this perfect storm for more fires. And we know we have to address all of those things. We have to address climate change and we have to address the forest management part, so we can have trees in the future. There's no simple solution. But we do have to get off fossil fuels.
Hawkins: Some scientists believe that we have like 20, 30 years max before we cross a critical line of no return. Others think it's 50.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
